On This Day: August 17

Great moments in history and popular culture happen every day, and ON THIS DAY will share a few of them with you. We’ll also point you to related resources in our collection, helping you to discover classic films, musical favorites, and historical tidbits. The primary focus will be on our e-material – e-books, e-audio, and downloadable and streamable music and film – but physical books and DVDs will also be part of the fun.

On this day in 1943, Robert De Niro was born. De Niro first came to prominence as an actor in 1973, when Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets were released. Since then, he's been a prolific film actor, with almost 100 movies to his credit. He has worked frequently with director Martin Scorsese, in such films as Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy. De Niro stars with Jeremy Irons in the 1986 drama The Mission, about 18th-century missionaries in South America; it's available for streaming at Hoopla.

On this day in 1958, Belinda Carlisle was born. In the early 1980s, Carlisle was the lead singer of The Go-Go's ("Our Lips Are Sealed," "We Got the Beat"). After the group disbanded in 1985, Carlisle performed as a solo act. Her biggest hits were "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" and "I Get Weak." She continues to perform and record a new album every few years. Some of Carlisle's work, both with The Go-Go's and as a solo act, is available for streaming at Hoopla.

And on this day in 2008, Michael Phelps became the first athlete to win eight gold medals in a single Olympic Games, as part of the United States 4x100 medley team at the Beijing Olympics. Phelps set new world records in seven of his victories, and a new Olympic record in the eighth. In four Olympic Games (2004 through 2016), Phelps won 28 medals, more than any other Olympic athlete. Phelps's memoir No Limits is available as an e-book at OverDrive, or in print.

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